Thank you to everyone for participating! :) We wish we could give ALL of you one!

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This morning, I thought I would mix it up a little and feature a new ‘Would you try it’ segment on Oh She Glows! In today’s feature, I am telling you all about the latest health trends or products and you simply vote on whether you would try it out or not! Easy as that! Here we go!

Up first:

1) Iron Yoga

West meets East in this dynamic new workout that will sculpt your body, increase muscle flexibility, sharpen concentration, and release stress. Triathlete Anthony Carillo serendipitously combined yoga with weight training and discovered that it improved his body mechanics, which, in turn, led to better performance in each of his sports–swimming, running, and cycling. See what it can do for you! [Source]

Reebok has some new sneakers out that apparently tone your key leg muscles (glutes, hamstrings, and calves) simply by just wearing them! The shoes have unique balance pods to create instability that makes your muscles work harder.

Sarah Jo from Glamour magazine recently reviewed these sneakers and said that she really felt her muscles working while wearing them around the house. She even felt a slight burning sensation in her muscles from having to work harder to balance!

5) Over the past year, stability balls used as desk chairs have become all the rage in many workplaces. There is even a new stability ball chair created specifically for this purpose! It is supposed to tone your abs and improve your posture while you sit at your desk.

6) Bikram yoga (aka hot yoga) is popular among celebrities and non-celebrities alike, looking to get an intense yoga experience.

Bikram Yoga is ideally practiced in a room heated to 105°F (40.5°C) with a humidity of 40%. Classes are guided by specific dialogue including 26 postures and two breathing exercises. Classes last approximately 90 minutes.

7) Kellogg’s came out with a low calorie protein water last year that boosts 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of fibre in one serving. It claims to help you feel full while still being low calorie (the sweetener used is sucralose).

hmm. i’ve heard about iron yoga, but personally i think it goes against the point of yoga, which is to work with your own body weight. i don’t think it’s necessary to have weights since it’s already challenging as it is.

some of those i’ve previously dismissed as ridiculous – the sneakers, the office chairs, the whole special k challenge. these just promote the fact that you don’t need to take time out of your day for exercise. at least for me, exercise is my me-time, and it should be separate from work and stress. also they promote the fact that you should be burning calories or trying to improve yourself every second of the day, which is an obviously unhealthy standard. but maybe that’s just my opinion?

i do however love love love hot yoga, and i think the raw food way of life is intriguing, although not something i would ever switch to. it has opened up an extension in the way i look at food and its preparation though, and a lot of raw food recipes are totally delicious. :) and i’ve been to gusto, and it was fun! (though not life changing lol)

That was a lot of fun! I have already tried a few of the things- love hot yoga, and thought that the lemon Special K water was VILE. It was like pine sol and had a big glob of something floating in it. I can’t get over that trauma to try another flavor!

I used to use an exercise ball as a chair, but it’s much more challenging without the whole apparatus, I bet.

I’m working on incorporating more raw foods into my diet now and so far, so good! I have a Green Monster in the morning, fresh fruit when I’m hungry, a big salad with fresh dressing and a raw bar for lunch and then fresh fruit until dinner. Not so hard, especially since I always crave fresh fruits and veggies during the summer. I’m definitely not giving up cooked foods all together though, and if I crave something, I’m going to eat it!

Whoo that was fun! I’ve seen those sneakers before and they just plain look weird. Honestly I don’t know how they can really be good for you. I feel like one of the main reasons they’d do anything for your legs is because they’re so darn heavy!!

That was fun!
That upright paddle thing looks like fun.
I actually have a couple of the Carmen Electra dvds. They’re ok, kinda fun but I feel fairly stupid when I do them and they aren’t a very intense workout. But they are good to throw in every once and a while for a change.

I have most of the Carmen DVD’s and they are a lot of fun! My favourite one is number 2 – it’s a great all over workout and the trainer she works with is amazing!!

I am not a fan of hot yoga. I’ve really tried to like it, but I always feel like crap during & after. I much prefer yoga is more normal temperatures. I’m also not sure how I feel about “iron yoga”

Raw food is something that i continue to learn more about and last night I actually made my first raw dessert – raw key lime pie! It was really yummy. I also picked up my brand spankin’ new dehydrator last night and I’m excited to use it. For me, it’s a way to create food that takes my food intolerances into consideration in a fun new way. I love using fresh foods and produce and I think it is an amazing technique for that!

Loved this post Angela! There are so many trends out there – some crazy, some not so crazy – and it’s neat to see what people think of them. Personally, I’m up for trying any new exercise (except maybe that strip tease/pole dancing), but something like that Special K water really doesn’t appeal to me!

I can’t get to the poll because I am at work and it is considered a game so I will just answer here :) (Fun Post)
1) I agree with the poster that said yoga is supposed to be using your own body weight and honestly this is a triathelete so um..no
2) No, but these could be good for someone who does nothing
3) Hell to the No!
4) No, could be fun but I would probably feel how I feel in a Zumba class, not enough intensity for me
5) Cool, I would use that just because it is awesome
6) I would try it but probably couldn’t make the whole class, I am ok with heat but usually I don’t like to be next to someone while sweating profusely
7) No
8) Yes
9) I already try to do alot of RAW but I love too much food to go totally RAW
10) Would be awesome but we have no water in west Texas lol!

ah this was such a fun post! i loveee bikram, but its just too hot for me during the summer. in the winter time though its absolutely perfect and makes me feel so incredibly amazing. you should try it in the cooler months for sure! i think you would enjoy how challenging it is!

The yoga with weight to me just looks like a greeeeat way to cause even more accidental injuries during yoga. I used to have a stability ball chair.. They are a BLAST!! Seriously! They’re so much fun because you can bounce on them when you get bored, and if you want to, you can take the ball out and just roll around on your belly with it. So much fun. Only problem is that the chair itself breaks very easily, so you gotta be careful.

Now, most celeb workouts are pretty crappy.. but I really want to try Carmen’s Striptease. I love the striptease genre, and I know Carmen Electra isn’t annoying. However, Heidi would make me want to dropkick small adorable kittens in the face.. and then microwave them. Seriously, I dislike that girl soo much.

Congrats Melanie!
Such a fun post Angie!
I only said no to 3, 5, and 7….I THINK, lol. Some made me think for a sec. I only said yes to the raw food because I am DEFINITELY willing to TRY it for a day. Nice to be able to other’s reader’s take on it as well.
Love THIS!

Fun polls! I answered almost the same as you actually. Iron Yoga is a lot of fun, I’ve had a DVD for a while, and it’s a great workout. Pole dancing is a fantastic workout too, we did it at my bachelorette party (I even got stripper heels as a gag gift to do them in!). soooo curious to try paddle surfing!

When it comes to fitness trends I tend to stay away. Celebrity workout dvd’s are about as far from anything I would ever try. They should stick to acting/singing/being famous for no real reason (I’m looking at you, Heidi). But, I can’t knock it until I try it I guess.

The raw food and organic bar are something I would be interested in. I don’t know if I could go completely raw though. But organic wine and beer? Sign me up :)

I really don’t get why people wouldn’t want to know Heidies diet/workout advice. I do not like her as a person but no one can deny that she has a very toned looking body. She doesn’t look like she starves herself either so that is a bonus, you can tell she works out and eats well.

Yikes! NO to Heidi and NO to the icky chemical water. Not sure about weights and yoga…
as for the rest…I would love an organic bar, and I am already a raw-food eating Bikram yoga addict, so there you go!
I want that chair, too. I used to use just a ball as my desk chair, but (duh) it kept rolling away, so I would totally need the “chair” part.

I tried Bikram yoga last month, and I foresee having an on-again-off-again relationship with it in the future…it’s just so expensive, as other people have commented. (But those nervous about trying it, most studios have relatively cheap trial periods for new people, and it’s totally okay if you need to sit or lay down and skip a few poses if you’re not feeling up to it, you just can’t leave the room early.)
And my aunt’s been taking pole dancing classes for years, with the woman who was really the pioneer in turning that into a fitness thing, and I’ve been dying to try it. I found a studio about 20 minutes away and once my knee’s strong enough and I have the extra cash, I’m signing up! (My boyfriend can’t wait either…)

Fun post!
I’m definitely keen to try paddle boarding. It looks heaps of fun while still being a really hard workout. The striptease video looks pretty fun too but I’d probably feel like a huge dork.. maybe one to do with the curtains closed while no ones home!
I’m very skepical of the shoes. It seems odd to me.. Are they comfortable? It seems to go againist the advice usually given for shoes although I guess you wouldn’t wear them while working out? I’ve seen those ‘fit-flops’ around and really they just look kinda silly.